Fallout: The Regulator
by Metal Harbinger
Summary: In the New Midwest Commonwealth, a young Regulator on a personal quest finds himself drawn into a conflict between two warring factions and it is his timely intervention that could tip the scales in favor of the eventual victor.
1. Prologue: War Never Changes

Fallout: The Regulator

by Metal Harbinger

**Author's Note: **For those who you in the Fan-Fiction "Fallout" community who might have read "Crossing Destinies," once again this is your friendly neighborhood Metal Harbinger at your service!

Unfortunately I encountered creative burnout following the posting of my first "Crossing Destinies" chapter and finding myself encountering a whole shit load of creative roadblocks I have been forced to discontinue my first foray into the "Fallout" realm.

Nevertheless, I'm quite the stubborn bastard when it comes to wanting to do something and I've been wanting to do a "Fallout" fic for quite some time so here is my next attempt and hopefully I'll get a little farther than I did the last time around.

As it was with my last attempt, this story is going to be set in an entirely new locale filled with original characters, factions and even a few new types of mutants here and there.

Now that I've gotten that mumbo jumbo out of the way it's time to get crackin'!

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Prologue: War Never Changes

_War. War never changes._

_ When atomic fire consumed the earth humanity was sent retreating to the safety of the great underground vaults. Those who survived took the knowledge of the old world with them, in turn passing it down to the generations that followed._

_ When the vaults opened their inhabitants entered a hostile new world that would have been foreign to their ancestors, a necropolis covered in ruins, an open grave site to the society of yesteryear._

_ Yet even in the darkest of days, humankind is a stubborn creature, determined to prevail no matter what obstacles were placed before them. They refused to let the ways of their old world die while simultaneously hoping they would not repeat the same mistakes of those before them._

_ As the world enters its 24__th__ century, a fledgling nation is born from the wastes; the descendant of an old world nation they are determined to breathe new life into. This nation is the New Midwest Commonwealth._

_ Inspired by tales of the great leaders of the past, the NMC seeks to spread the old world values of democracy, liberty and the rule of law in an attempt to restore order to a hostile land._

_ As it has been with all burgeoning civilizations throughout recorded history, the young nation has endured its struggles in the form of raiders, super mutants and other horrors born from the fallout of a long ago war, yet they soldier forth, determined to bring hope to those living in the death grip of fear._

_ They are not the only faction seeking to reshape the land in their image._

_ Coming from the land once known as Chicago another society arises, driven by a divine mission dictated to them by their living prophet: The Order of the New Dawn._

_ An autocratic theocracy led by the high priest known only as Aquinas, it is their goal to unite the world under the sacred word of their 'great provider,' converting the savage wastelanders to their faith while punishing those who refuse._

_ Through it all there are those who watch from the shadows. Who they are and what are their motives no one knows._

_ As it is with any major conflict there are those caught in the middle, unwitting pawns in a game much larger than they can ever anticipate. It is their moves that tip the crucial balance of power in favor of the eventual winner._

_ Because war, war never changes._

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**Author's Note: **So what do you think? Let me know. I accept constructive criticism, but no flames. Violation of this policy results in either crucifixion or the said offender becoming Deathclaw chowder! Take your pick!

Hopefully I can keep trucking along with this reboot and hope to hear what you have to say! Until next time this is Metal Harbinger saying SPREAD THE SICKNESS, ONE MIND AT A TIME! \m/


	2. When Things Go to Shit in a Wasteland Mi

Chapter 1: When Things Go to Shit in a Wasteland Minute

The crack of a hunting rifle resounded and in less than a split second the feral ghoul hit the dirt with a fresh hole drilled through its skull.

"Ha! Got me another one!" the triumphant marksman whooped, "Looks like you're buying drinks when we get to the next town! How's about that? Huh? Huh?" he asked elbowing the younger man next to him; "C'mon Cody! I know defeat is a bitter pill to swallow, but you don't have to let it get your tongue too!" he laughed.

The young man walking next to him was twenty-one years of age and stood slightly less than six feet tall with a full head of strawberry blond hair in desperate need of a trim and an X-shaped scar on his right cheek marring an otherwise youthful appearance.

"Always gotta make a game out of everything, don't cha' Ralphie?" Cody Shivers replied with a roll of his hazel eyes.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. You always say that whenever I'm kicking your ass!" Ralphie Serrano laughed stridently. "Nine to six remember? I'm counting that mole rat too. Y'know shufflers aren't the only things running around these parts. Shit, I might kill me another yao guai in one shot!"

Cody only responded with an extended middle finger.

"Let me know when you two ladies are done with your little pissing match. I'd really like to get a move on before more of those brain eaters decide to pay us a visit," called out a middle-aged man who had been checking over his service rifle.

"Always gotta be a buzz kill, don't cha' Ol' Jed?" Ralphie sardonically retorted while tugging at the forest green head wrap that kept his shaggy black hair out of his eyes.

Jed Sanderson spat a wad of chewing tobacco on the ground before rising to his feet and scooping up his travel bag, "No, I just don't think of myself as being some dumbass kid whose gonna get himself and all his friends killed because he laughs like a fucking hyena! Christ kid, one of these days you're gonna bring a shit ton of those shufflers to our doorstep if you keep that comedian bullshit up!"

"He makes a good point. You'd be wise to listen to him for once," the group's 'navigator' Jensen Ghee spoke while fiddling with the Pip-Boy 4000 mounted to his left wrist.

"Heh, and I thought you were wise enough to mind your own business Jenny Boy!" Ralphie shot back, calling the Asian man by a nickname he hated.

"Alright, that's enough out of you!" Jed shouted nearly jabbing his calloused finger into the younger man's nose, "Christ almighty, sometimes I swear I'm nothing more than a glorified babysitter with all the shit you give me. Fuck, I should've left your sorry ass in that mirelurk nest back in Peka!"

"And you should've left those Mentats in your purse back home," Ralphie quipped.

"Okay, I think that's enough of antagonizing Ol' Jed for one day," Cody said placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder and leading him off to the side, hoping to avoid the right hand to the jaw that likely would have followed knowing their leader's notoriously short temper, especially when _anybody_ acknowledged his former addiction.

With a grunt Jed returned his attention to Ghee, "What's next on our itinerary again? That fancy little 'watch' of yours does say so, right?"

"Give me a sec," the navigator replied before typing in a few commands to consult his map, "Says here it's some place called 'Lakeview,' a little over sixteen kilometers away."

"Do we even wanna be anywhere near a lake?" asked a short Hispanic man with a 10mm submachine gun clasped in his hands, "Seems like everywhere around these parts it's nothing but irradiated shitholes."

"Well even if it turns out to be near another one of those 'irradiated shitholes,' it's still some form of civilization and we need a place to hang our hats for a while," the veteran replied temporarily removing his pre-War cowboy hat to scratch at his balding head underneath, "Last I checked we've been on the move for nearly two weeks."

"Not unless you're looking to become a shuffler yourself," Louie Ramos replied, "Last I checked we were low on RadAway."

"Well we need to get to wherever there's a courier so we can get all these fingers sent back to base," an amber-haired man chimed in raising a sack that looked ready to burst at the seams, setting it down a second later when he was overcome by the stench of death emanating from within, "Last I checked we were low on caps too."

"That or maybe we'll get lucky and happen across an abandoned Nuka-Cola truck with a shit ton of unconsumed carbonated goodness waiting for you in the back," Cody said walking over and playfully clapping the seated man on the shoulder.

"Stop it. You're gonna make me thirsty just thinking about that," the amber-haired fellow playfully shot back.

"Can it be a Sunset Sarsaparilla truck instead?" Ralphie chipped in.

"Ugh, that stuff tastes like Brahmin piss!" he replied scrunching his face for comical effect and eliciting a few laughs.

"Yeah, you _would_ drink that stuff sicko!" Ralphie replied scratching at the goatee forming on his chin.

"Yeah Andy, hopefully we'll find some place with a working radio so you can get back in touch with your squad," Louie said walking over and sitting down on a log across from him, tucking a fresh cigarette between his lips and pulling out a gold-plated lighter.

"Forest is the toughest, most resourceful motherfucker I've ever known. He'll get those guys somewhere safe and in one piece," Andy spoke before placing the Nuka-Cola bottle back to his lips and downing the rest of the dark liquid in one continuous gulp before casually tossing the emptied glass bottle aside.

"Christ Ziegers, what's that gotta be your fourth or your fifth?" Ralphie snorted.

"Heh, wouldn't you like to know Serrano?" he chuckled while patting his side pack, the clinking of glass coming from within.

"What I'd like to know is are all you maggots ready to ship out or not?" Jed walked over with his service rifle at the ready, "Pack your shit and get ready to move or else you're getting left behind!"

Jed then turned his attention to another figure who had been tasked with guard duty, "Delton get ready, we're moving out!"

The man in question turned to face the group. Whoever he was he had to be roughly in his late thirties to mid-forties, clad in a hefty set of metal armor as opposed to the dusters worn by the other men and carrying enough weapons to make him look like a walking gun store. A Chinese-manufactured Type 93 assault rifle was strapped to his back, a scoped .44 magnum and a Ripper both hung from opposite sides, and he had a few fragmentation grenades strapped to his harness. A pneumatic power fist served as a prosthetic in place of his missing right hand. His chestnut-colored hair fell past his ears and was so greasy the sunlight glinted off of it, a telltale sign he hadn't bathed in days, along with a goatee that was rapidly becoming a full beard. A patch covered his left eye, a jagged vertical scar extending the length of his face. His remaining eye was an almost black shade of brown, emitting a cold, unforgiving stare.

A cigarette dangled between his lips and a thick plume of smoke found its way over to the group. Telling him to put it out would have been suicide.

'Delton' was an assumed surname. Whoever he was he barely ever spoke, but he damn sure knew his way around combat and preferred to let his fists do the talking, as was the case back in Poplar Bluff when a restaurateur had told him the exact same thing, only to eat a power fist for his troubles, hitting the man so hard he went flying through the nearest wall. It was unknown whether the man had lived or died, too many bullets started flying afterward and the group was forced to flee.

Why Jed allowed this mystery man to continue tagging along was an endless source of speculation for the others, many theories regarding his past drummed up over numerous games of Caravan, ranging from the gruesome to the downright farcical.

Whoever he really was, it was known he had seen much violence in his life and he bore the scars to prove it. Through all the bloodshed he had likely incurred his share of trauma which may have very well been a major contribution to his taciturn nature, leaving them feeling like they were traveling with a ticking time bomb waiting to go off at any second. They were left on edge, but nevertheless it was Jed's call to keep him on board and in this ragtag group of Regulators, his word alone was the law.

Delton nodded to back to the lead Regulator and scooped up his pack to join the others. Within seconds the group was assembled and they were marching down a winding dirt trail that would take them through an abandoned campground and then to the broken concrete highway they followed before their detour. Before they could continue any further Jed raised a hand motioning for them to halt.

"Cody, I want you up front. Scout the area for any threats," he ordered.

The young man nodded and made his way onto the road. Taking cover behind the splintered remnants of a rusted out Highwayman and reaching for the customized varmint rifle strapped to his back, making sure everything was in fine working order before checking his extended magazine to make sure it was still fully loaded, his caution having saved his life countless times in his recent skirmishes with that raider gang.

The rifle called _'Annie'_ had seen its share of wear and tear throughout countless journeys, but it was a gift presented to him by his adoptive father when he was eight years old and it had served him as faithfully as any companion, human or other, had over the last thirteen years. It was a possession he intended to hang onto for a long, long time and he did what he could to keep it in tiptop shape, having added a night vision scope, silencer and extended mag capacity to triple its effectiveness in battle. Readying himself for any potential dangers he exhaled deeply, collapsed to a knee, closed his other eye and peered through the scope.

The barren landscape surrounding the broken road was covered in dead grass and dotted by dead trees, jagged rock formations, the occasional charred shell of a house and marring craters, the remnants of a long ago war. Amongst the trees he could make out a small pond of radioactive waste with a swarm of bloatflies circling overhead, yet they were far enough away to avoid being any kind of nuisance to the traveling band of Regulators.

"So far, so good," the marksman replied slinging the rifle over his shoulder.

"Alright, let's move out boys," Jed said readying his service rifle and with his cue the band of seven started out.

"And we'd better move fast. I'm starving here," Louie said rubbing his tummy in emphasis.

"I don't care as long as they have a copious amount of cold drinks and some warm tail to boot," Ralphie said walking up alongside his best friend.

"Just don't be going and nearly wasting all our caps on some hooker like you did back in Lurker Bay," Jed huffed behind them, "Last time you did that we could barely afford enough Pork n' Beans to go around for the whole lot of us."

"With all the fingers we got from those Bushdweller creeps I doubt that'll be much of a problem. Shit, we might get enough caps for all of us to get a lady for the night. Hell I'll even buy you all a round of drinks! Fuck that, I'll buy the whole goddamn bar!," Ralphie replied before looking back to Andy, "so long as Andy doesn't go and get his head blown off."

The group was returning from an excursion to Fiddler's Point, a boom town that had seen a recent increase in attacks from raiders and slavers. Responding to the mayor's call, the Regulator band made their way in and managed to eliminate every single member of the Bushdweller raider gang, in addition to happening across a slaver haven where they managed to kill all the slavers and free twelve captives. It had proven a fruitful endeavor and now all they needed to do was find a way to get the severed trigger fingers back to their home base and they would be a few hundred caps, possibly even over a thousand and some richer.

"Keep your bullshitting up and you'll be the one needing to worry about keeping your head attached," Andy playfully shot back, pointing his assault carbine at his companion and pretending to fire.

"Whatever you say 'Mr. I-Like-to-Talk-Big-but-Couldn't-Hit-the-Broad-Side-of-a-Brahmin-Without-Wasting-an-Entire-Fucking-Clip!'" Ralphie chortled.

Jed sighed in annoyance while Cody and Louie both found themselves laughing.

It was always nice when they could loosen up in the hostile wasteland they traversed, finding it relieving how the simplest of things could make things more bearable after everything endured. Even through the harsh terrain, the food shortages, the radiation, the raiders and all the other abominations he still had his loyal band of brothers. Through thick and thin they stuck by one another, even if Delton was an antisocial prick, still they were like a family in a time when few existed.

"Still got any of those Grognak comics on you?" Ralphie asked trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, I actually managed to scrounge up three of them at that one house back in Arden Springs. Funny thing is they were locked in a safe. Damn, that guy sure loved his comics. Then again, they might as well be read by someone instead of being locked away like that forever and ever," Cody chuckled, knowing the original owner was likely long gone.

"Found me an AntAgonizer premiere issue still in mint condition. Finders keepers, losers weepers," Ralphie laughed.

"I'd say, but you haven't lived until you've found an entire stash of scotch kept in one. Oh man, that was a party and a half right there," Louie spoke from behind them.

"Well I found some woman's sleepwear in one once and it was in the home of some guy who was supposed to have been a big war hero before the bombs fell," Andy laughed from the back of the pack, "Guess even the manliest of men have their secrets."

"You oughta' be one to talk," Ralphie shot back just as he was interrupted by a string of electronic beeps and looked back to see Ghee fiddling with his Pip-Boy, "You in the mood for dancing or something?"

"I was trying to see if there were any jazz stations around these parts, but all I'm getting is this," he said raising the wrist so everyone else could hear the staccato string of beeping, "Sounds like Morse Code if you ask me."

"Like any of us would know what that means," Louie spoke as they happened upon the overturned remnants of a baby blue Corvega, a skeletonized arm sticking through the shattered driver's side window.

"Well whatever the case is, they're probably miles away and we won't have time to go saving their hinds. We best stay on our current path," Jed spoke looking down to the concrete, a tinge of regret he wouldn't be carrying out a good deed for someone in need.

"Yeah," Cody said looking over to a Sleipnir skull that lay at the side of the road, a bullet hole in the center revealing the unfortunate animal's fate.

The group traveled along in silence for the next few minutes until they happened across an abandoned Nuka-Cola semi-truck. Ralphie let out a whistle and was about to make a wisecrack when Jed suddenly shot his right hand out.

"Pipe down!" he hissed and the group came to a screeching halt.

"What is-" Ghee was about to ask when he looked ahead to see what the veteran Regulator was pointing at and his skin suddenly paled.

Near the crashed semi was a bullet-riddled billboard that had two large red R's outlined in black spray painted over the previous advertisement.

"Road Ragers," Jed muttered.

The Road Ragers were one of the most notorious raider gangs in the area, noted for their access to working automobiles, a rarity in the wastes and one that made them twice as dangerous as any other band of miscreants. Whenever you happened across one of their markings trouble was sure to follow.

Jed Sanderson knew of their brutality firsthand, having barely survived three other skirmishes in which he lost several good men. It was like deja vu all over and he quickly looked back to Louie.

"Louie, stock everybody up. Double the usual," he ordered waiting near the shorter man.

"You got it," he replied unslinging the heavy duffel bag hanging over his shoulder and unzipping it.

Louie acted as the group's unofficial 'quartermaster,' in charge of divvying the group's weapons and ammunition. He reached in and began distributing clips for his comrade's primary weapons and sidearms. By the end of the handout his bag was nearly emptied.

"That's everything boss, nothing that goes boom though," he said zipping the bag up.

"Just gonna have to make due with what we've got," the leader replied readying his service rifle when a woman's blood curdling shrieks suddenly filled the air.

"That came from over there!" Ralphie said pointing eastward.

Jed felt his stomach twisting into knots, yet knew he had to act and began charging towards the source of the cries, "C'mon, let's move!"

Cody and the others chased after their leader, following him down a steep incline that would take them through a narrow crevice and then to an open clearing where they ground to a halt.

The Regulators found themselves in a small camp comprised of tattered tents and a few small structures hastily erected from plywood and sheet metal, a common sight around the wastes.

In the center of the campsite was a freshly extinguished campfire surrounded by emptied Nuka-Cola and whiskey bottles, tin cans and emptied food boxes, in addition to various spent casings of Jet and Psycho, a few emptied bottles of Buffout. There were a few ammunition boxes and first-aid boxes present, all of them overturned and visibly emptied. Also scattered about were a sawed-off shotgun, a hunting rifle, a few 10mm handguns and a 9mm submachine gun, all of them in various stages of disrepair and thus unusable.

But it would be the campsite's 'decorations' that would leave the group in stunned silence, Jed Sanderson left regretting his attempted heroics.

To their immediate left was a ratty old mattress with a headless corpse chained to it and not far from that was an old bathtub with a fresh corpse resting in it, the hapless soul's chest sliced open and the internal organs removed, in addition to various severed limbs scattered haphazardly around the campsite. Near the extinguished campfire there were even some internal organs left lying in the open that looked like they were being prepped for consumption. All the gore, all the insanity, this had all the hallmarks of a raider gang's lair.

"What the fucking hell?" Ralphie murmured, the normally wisecracking marksman finding his stomach twisted into knots as he fought back the bile building up behind his lips.

Cody ignored his friend's horrified inquiry and focused on his gruesome discovery behind a large hut.

A figure had been suspended on a wooden cross, a once living, breathing person who now had most of their flesh torn away from their body, unable to discern the deceased's gender due to all the damage. Several knives and arrows protruded from the sinewy husk, the nameless victim having been used for target practice. At the moment a crow was pecking away at the empty socket where the carcass' right eye had resided.

At the base of the crucified body was a tape recorder playing its cassette on a loop, the source of the woman's screams.

"Hey Cody, do you-" he could hear Ghee walking up behind him, only for the man to gasp upon spotting his colleague's gruesome find. "What the fucking hell?" he could only blurt out before composing himself and calling out, "Jed, over here!"

The pounding of boots came from behind, followed by more terrified gasps.

"My god in Heaven..." Jed murmured, clasping at the cross hanging around his neck.

"Looks like we've found our victim," Andy remarked, doing what he could to avoid gazing upon the disgusting sight.

Jed took a few deep breaths before calming down and forcing himself to look upon the mutilated carcass and walking over to shoo the crow away before reaching down and switching the tape recorder off. "Cut this person down. We're going to give them a proper burial. No one deserves to be left out in the open like this," he ordered before finally looking away and rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger.

Before the Regulators could comply, all attention would be drawn to Delton when his mechanical hand shot into the air.

"What is it?" Ghee blurted out, only to be silenced by a sharp glare from the antisocial Regulator.

"You hear that?" he hissed, his timbre made gravelly following years of his self-destructive habit.

Everybody stared in a mixture of awe and horror, always a small spectacle whenever the enigmatic loner spoke more than two words in one sentence. Usually when he spoke it meant something bad was about to happen.

It left a bad feeling forming in the gut of Cody Shivers. He clenched his rifle tightly as his blood chilled, feeling the tremors in his hands and wrists. His teeth chattered beneath his closed lips, leaving him wishing he had a toothpick on hand like he always used whenever this happened, his pearly whites would soon be ground into nothing.

_"Damn you Delton and your 'sixth sense,'" _he thought to himself as the world slowed down around him and his heart hammered inside his chest, every beat echoing with the intensity of a little earthquake.

"Delton, what the fucking hell are we waiting for?" Ralphie impatiently blurted out.

Before the loner could let out an impatient snarl he suddenly noticed a blur out of the corner of his eye, sneaking its way up behind Ralphie. Without warning he raised his rifle and squeezed the trigger, his round sailing past the young man's head.

There was the sound of a bone ripping through flesh, a splatter of blood onto the marksman's face, and then a heavy thud striking the dirt.

Ralphie let out a strangled shriek of terror and whirled around looking down, gasping in horror as a man's body suddenly materialized on the ground behind him, a hole torn through a portion of his chest not covered by his patchwork metal armor. A pipe wrench was clenched in his right hand and attached to his wrist above that was a stealth boy.

"A raider...with a stealth boy?" Louie asked staring down at the fresh corpse perplexed, "But how?"

Jed stared thoroughly at the side while scratching at his handlebar mustache, "Beats the living hell outta me."

They knew what stealth boys were, a device which attached to the user's wrist and generated a modulating field that transmits reflected light from one side of an object to the other. It could make a person harder to notice, yet not completely invisible. They were typically used by military special operations forces and a few mercenary units here and there, yet they had been largely outlawed for civilian use in areas where there were functioning governments present. Then again, if you had enough caps and the right connections they could still be purchased on the black market, and for _a lot _of caps that is.

How some piss ant raider had managed to get his hands on one was a question that left the seven Regulators scratching their heads.

Another gunshot rang out and Jensen Ghee's head exploded into a crimson mist, snapping the Regulators out of their trance and sending them ducking for cover behind whatever they could find, Cody grabbing Ralphie and pulling him for cover behind one of the sheet metal huts.

Delton only flinched briefly as the navigator's head exploded, yet having seen much violence in his life he quickly regained his bearings and began scanning the area for the unseen sniper. As it was with much of the land surrounding them it was nothing but rock formations, aside from a patch that almost looked like it was made from netting.

That was it right there!

The antisocial Regulator flinched again as a section of frayed wood exploded next to his head, yet there was no resounding bang, meaning their attacker had a silencer.

Quickly rushing towards an overturned bathtub, Delton bolted between any available cover in a zigzagging pattern that would make it harder for the shooter to get a bead on him. His rapid movements continued until he was within range and he unclasped a fragmentation grenade attached to his bandolier and chucked it into the opening above him. An 'Oh shit!' rang out, followed by the deafening explosion.

"It's go time!" a voice suddenly called out followed by the electronic crackle of a stealth boy being powered down. Delton shot his gaze over to his right where a man with his hair shaved into a Mohawk stood wearing piecemeal metal and leather armor, aiming an assault carbine in his direction. Two more crackles resounded and the man was joined by two more raiders, one a young man who still appeared to be in his teens, wearing a pre-War baseball cap with his face covered by a bandana and a combat shotgun in his hands, and the other a woman with her hair shaved into a strange double Mohawk hairstyle he had seen out west, clutching a service rifle.

"Ain't nowhere to run! Might as well give it up now and we might be nice enough to make it quick and painless!" the same guy shouted out.

Delton sized them up carefully. They were nothing more than three piss ant hoodlums who probably had very little if any training in the usage of their weaponry as it was for most raiders, known for sloppy shooting in a desperate attempt to hit anything as opposed to carefully lining up their shots and conserving ammo.

"Fuck you," he smirked.

Cody saw Delton's predicament and raised Annie preparing to take a shot, but there was a sudden crackle coming from behind him and next thing he knew, the young marksman found himself being struck hard in the back of the head.

He fell to the ground and his beloved rifle clattered from his hands, only to be kicked away before he could reach for it. His vision still slightly blurred he looked up to see a woman standing tall over him with a fire axe in her hands, the goggles attached to her leather skull cap disguising the blood lust in her eyes.

"Time to die pretty boy!" she cackled madly.

"Save some for me!" a man's voice called out from behind him.

His mind screamed at him to act, blocking out the ensuing argument over who would get to kill him. Annie was out of reach, but then he suddenly remembered the Regulator Sequoia in his holster and he shot his hand downward, his sense of touch returning to him as he felt its wooden grip and he rolled to the side just in time to dodge the blade that would have split his skull wide open, raising the gun and squeezing the trigger five times. The woman thrashed violently as .45-70 Gov't rounds tore through her unarmored chest and she fell to the dirt like a puppet with its strings cut.

A lone gunshot rang out above him and a second later, another raider was falling next to him, the sight of his silent screams almost comforting to the young Regulator. He could feel himself being pulled to his feet and Annie being shoved back into his hands.

"C'mon, we've gotta help the others!" Ralphie shouted over the rattle of gunfire, his hunting rifle smoking from his most recent shot.

"Road Ragers roll out!" called out a grungy raider equipped with a handmade machete in one hand and a heavily-defaced _'STOP'_ sign in the other. His cry was was followed by a chorus of hoots and hollers and more raiders came descending upon the camp from a nearby hill frothing from their mouths like rabid dogs.

All of them were clad in patchwork armor made from metal, leather and whatever other materials they could find lying around, a few of them even carrying makeshift shields fashioned from battered old road signs. They were primarily armed with melee weapons and small arms, a few also carrying semi-automatic shotguns and assault rifles.

There was no command to open fire from Jed, the Regulators just raised their guns and did what they had to.

Andy leveled his service rifle and took aim upon the leader, firing a burst that traveled along the man's chest and into his throat, sending him tumbling violently down the slope as the horde advanced. Jed was there to cover him, raising his own service rifle and taking down two more raiders until he was halted by a 10mm round to the thigh that sent him scrambling behind the charred remnants of a Corvega.

Cody had regained his bearings and raised Annie, taking aim and firing a round into the throat of a raider that was advancing upon Louie, the quartermaster's submachine gun bucking wildly in his hands. Unfortunately he wasn't much of a fighter and it wasn't long before he was sent fishing through his pockets for another clip. He ran over to cover his colleague, raising his reloaded Sequoia and firing a round that punched through a speed limit sign covering another raider's chest and sending him clattering to the dirt. He then switched his sights and fired a round into the chest of another grubby attacker wielding a spiked baseball bat, the round punching through his throat and leaving him grasping weakly for the wound before he finally bled out.

"Thanks man, I owe you one!" Louie shouted over the rattling assault rifles and booming shotguns, giving his friend a thumbs up.

Elsewhere in the fracas Ralphie had dropped another mangy raider with a carefully timed shot from his hunting rifle and then switched his aim to take down another threatening to sneak up on Andy and Jed.

"Going down little boy!" a voice called out from his left and he turned to find another Road Rager leaping towards him with a serrated knife in hand, yet he managed to duck the man's swing and drove his steel-toed boot into his attacker's groin before smacking him in the jaw with his rifle's butt. With his opponent stunned, he grabbed the filthy man by the leather strap which held his spiked shoulder pads in place and spun him around, using him as a human shield when one of his buddies opened fire with a .32 pistol, the rounds tearing into his exposed skin. With the raider down, the Regulator quickly reached down for his Sequoia sidearm and dropped his colleague.

Cody meanwhile managed to duck a swing from a pipe-wielding raider and pulled out his trench knife, burying his spiked brass knuckles into the man's chin with a vicious uppercut before another Road Rager tried jumping him, only to be cut down by a well-placed barrage from Louie's submachine gun.

"Now I owe you," Cody shouted back to his colleague as he ran forward, only to find himself colliding with Delton's back.

The one-eyed man whirled around ready to knock his head off, only to stop himself when he saw who it was behind him. Without warning he shot his mechanical fist outward, taking down another raider wearing a pre-War motorcycle helmet.

"Gotta watch your back kid," he spat before raising his rifle and dropping two more Road Ragers.

Cody only nodded and raised his Sequoia, dropping another female raider equipped with a combat shotgun and wounding a dark-skinned man with a round to the kneecap before he was finished off by a neck snapping uppercut, compliments of Delton's power fist.

"C'mon, we've gotta get outta here. We ain't got enough to fight all these freaks!" Jed blurted out as him and Andy ran past.

Cody and Louie both heard the man's call and ran after them, the young man stopping to tap his friend Ralphie on the shoulder and interrupt him from scavenging a raider's corpse.

"Worry about that later! We've gotta get moving," he said forcefully grabbing his friend by the shoulder, a bullet whizzing past his ear and prompting him to fire back, "Now!"

Ralphie grunted in defeat and chased after his friends, running after their leader and Andy through another narrow crevice that would lead them to another broken concrete road where the charred husk of a Vertibird rested nearby and Jed came to a halt.

"Is this all of you?" he demanded.

"No, Delton's missing," Andy said scanning their surroundings.

The whirr of a motor called out and soon a deafening shriek sounded, followed by a Road Rager falling to the ground, now missing an arm. They were then greeted by Delton, the one-eyed man covered from head to toe in the blood of some freshly slaughtered raiders, powering down his Ripper.

"Didn't know I became popular all of a sudden," the loner uncharacteristically chuckled.

Jed was interrupted by the revving of engines and looked to his left, "Goddamn it."

Louie looked over to see what his leader was looking at and his jaw nearly hit the pavement, "You're fucking shitting me!" he gasped as a heavily-armored gunmetal gray Humvee came racing towards them, followed by a faded red Highwayman and a light green-colored pickup truck, all vehicles packed with more of those ravenous Road Ragers.

"Over there, stay off the main roads!" Jed ordered pointing towards a narrow trail that led down another incline.

It was a desperate race to escape for the remaining Regulators, finding themselves severely outnumbered and outgunned by a band of rampaging raiders who saw them as nothing more than fresh meat.

The six Regulators bobbed and weaved their way through the narrow passageway until they descended further into a gorge, thinking they had created some distance between themselves and the Road Ragers until the revving of engines again filled their ears.

"Oh what the fuck now?" Louie whined as he looked ahead to see more Road Ragers mounted on dirt bikes waiting for them.

"Last one to score a kill buys dinner!" whooped the raider at the front, clad in an armor-plated motorcycle helmet with two horns sticking out from the sides powering up the Ripper held in his left hand.

"Oh fuck," Louie muttered next to Cody knowing they were boxed in.

The lead biker started making noises with his mouth that mimicked a blaring trumpet before shouting, "Charge!"

In spite of being dangerously low on ammo and heavily fatigued, the Regulators had to make a stand and opened fire upon the raiders, two of the armored men falling immediately, while the leader had somehow managed to avoid all the bullets flying around him and made contact with the earth in a cloud of dust, charging towards them with reckless abandon.

Cody raised his Sequoia and fired off his remaining rounds at the oncoming biker, only for his bullets to ping off of its metal plating until the gun clicked empty. The buzz of the Ripper grew louder and he looked up just in time to see the maniac charging towards him with nowhere to run.

_"Shit! Shit! Shit! Not like this!" _he thought to himself while fishing through his pockets for any remaining bullets, knowing Annie wouldn't have worked in such close quarters. He was halted as dust was kicked into his eyes and blinded him.

"Cody, look out!" he heard Louie calling out from behind him and a second later he was knocked to the ground as the dirt bike roared past him, landing hard on his chest with an 'oomph' that knocked the air out of his lungs, yet thankfully his leather breastplate had cushioned the impact.

Again finding his world rocked, it took some time for the Regulator's vision to readjust and when he did he found himself staring into Louie Ramos' dark eyes.

"Louie, we have to –," he was in the middle of saying when he noticed the quartermaster's mouth hanging open and his eyes wandered down to find the man's head separated from the rest of his body.

"Louie," he gasped. The man had sacrificed himself to save him.

Before he could speak any further he was being pulled back to his feet and had Delton shouting in his face.

"C'mon greenhorn, we ain't got time to be grieving!" the one-eyed man shouted before shooting his power fist out and knocking one of the bikers from his ride, the man's body spinning in the air before he connected with the earth at an awkward angle and his unmanned dirt bike was sent crashing into a large rock formation, splintering into two separate halves.

Indeed there was no time pay any final respects for Louie Ramos' loss as bullets pelted away at the earthen wall around him, Ralphie rushing up and raising his hunting rifle to nail one of the mad bikers in the back.

"Fucking move," Delton screamed as he noticed a maniac in the process of removing a fragmentation grenade from the line slung across his bare chest. He had drawn his arm backward to toss his explosive after pulling the pin, yet the one-eyed man raised his assault rifle in time to fire a barrage that sent the would-be bomber falling backwards. The grenade leaped from his hand as he struck the earth and rolled a few inches away, the following explosion swallowing him whole along with another raider.

"Move people! Move damn it!" Jed screamed before firing another barrage at an unseen assailant.

The survivors did as told with both Delton and Andy covering the rear flank as the bikers turned around to chase after them.

"You can't run! You can't hide! You can't win!" the lead biker cackled maniacally, only to fall a second later as one of Andy's bullets found its way through his opened visor, yet there were still plenty more Road Ragers on hand to continue the chase.

All they could do was run, following wherever the gorge took them. There was no time to return fire, just run.

The fatigue was taking its toll on the young Regulator and it wasn't long before Ralphie was running past him, only to fall a second later when a metallic snap rang out.

"Cody!" Ralphie screamed.

Cody looked back to find his best friend writhing in agony, a bear trap clamped down on his ankle.

"Oh god, Ralphie no!" the Regulator screamed back reaching for his fallen friend, halted when a metallic hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Kid, there's no time!" Delton shouted in his ear, only to eat an elbow for his troubles.

"I'm not leaving him behind!" Cody screamed back unslinging Annie from around his shoulder.

"Cody, we have to get out of here!" Andy called from behind him trying to wrestle him away, yet the young marksman's willpower overtook him and he shoved the amber-haired man off of him.

Ralphie reached out weakly for his best friend, pleading not to be left behind, only to be trampled to death as two dirt bikes raced over him.

The straw had broken the camel's back and Cody's rage amplified to never before seen levels. Raising his rifle he managed to shoot down a raider wearing a hockey mask and wounded a woman wearing a cowboy hat before Andy and Delton were grabbing him from behind and trying to pull him back.

"C'mon, it's no use! We have to go!" Andy shouted over the buzzing of the dirt bike engines as Cody thrashed against their grip, managing to strike the amber-haired man with another backhand, yet he maintained his grip and continued to tug at his younger companion, "Cody, c'mon!' he pleaded.

The enraged Regulator was just about to break free from their grasp when he looked up to see one of the mounted raiders raising a 9mm handgun with some strange engraving on the side and pointing it at his face.

The trigger was depressed and a gunshot rang out, the last thing Cody Shivers would see before everything went black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Author's Note: **And so ends the first chapter of my attempted rewrite, hoping this comes off as better than the original.

Now onto some random notes:

The customized varmint rifle's name 'Annie' is a nod to the famed sharpshooter Annie Oakley and would be a reflection upon Cody's marksmanship abilities, although I won't be making him some kind of Mary Sue/Marty Stu type who _never_ misses a shot, but he's still pretty damn good.

The Regulator Sequoia is inspired by the Ranger Sequoia which Chief Hanlon and the NCR Veteran Rangers carried in "New Vegas." Because the Regulators in "Fallout 3" have a Wild Western-inspired motif behind them I wanted to give them a similar-minded sidearm.

The Sleipnir is going to be one of my original animals added to the mix. The Sleipnir will be an 8 legged horse that is inspired by Odin's horse of the same name from Norse mythology. I always found it odd how in a Wild Western-inspired setting like New Vegas you would find two-headed cattle and oversized rams, yet you would never find anything inspired by horses and I would obviously assume that if you can have those running around, then you'd damn sure have mutant horses too.

Well hopefully I'll be able to keep this story running longer than the original and as always your feedback will be greatly appreciated. This is your friend neighborhood Metal Harbinger saying SPREAD THE SICKNESS, ONE MIND AT A TIME! \m/

Oh and Happy Holidays too! HO! HO! HO!


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